1935... The Medellín Tragedy
Que tal: Sixty six years ago Carlos Gardel died in a plane crash in the Olaya Herrera airport in Medellín, Colombia. A lot have been written about this accident and conspiration and or plots have been fabricated which some silly people (to say something polite) still try spread. The only believable thing of this tragedy, which took the life of 19 people including Gardel, Alfredo Le Pera, Guillermo Barbieri and Angel Riverol is the official version which surfaced, for the first time, in the original wire from United Press International. It was a painful day for Argentina and Colombia. Here a lot of homages were done throughout the entire country. And an authentic feeling of grieve and tears could be sensed, as it is pefectly documented. And of course, the best possible homage was provided by no one elese but Gardel himself several days later when Paramount Pictures released EL DIA QUE ME QUIERAS on July 16, 1935. (Despite that I myself corrected all the information about this picture on the Internet Movie Database, they have never included this imporant date, which I provided several times, for reasons beyond my knowledge). But if Gardel's death was a terrible shock for Argentina and Latin America, what happened in the United States? The New York Herald Tribune said that he was "famous as a tango singer as well as an actor". The New York Times stated that "his tangos and songs captivated the masses". The Spanish language paper "La Prensa" says: "The artistic story of Gardel is one of those rare cases of a really phenomenal popularity. If we had to make a comparison about the sympathy and popularity of the Argentinean singer among Spanish language people in general, we have to remember Rudolph Valentino". Musician Don Dean said that "nobady in the United States equals the popularity of Carlos Gardel in Argentina". Of course the shock was specially felt at Paramount and they have to do something. In an official statement Adolph Zukor said that Gardel was "the highest exponent of the Argentinean song, and with his premature death, the singing art lost a great artist and the film industry one of his most valuable performers". Ernst Lubitsch wrote: "The passing away of Carlos Gardel deprive us of great artist, internationally known, in the height of his career. His absence will be profoundly heartfelt in the professional world and by the million of people whose songs and music provided moments of happiness". Theodore Reed, who directed him (with Norman Taurog) in THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1936 say: "I am shocked and sad because of the death of Gardel. When I worked with him in THE BIG BROADCAST OF 1936 I discover that he was an excellent actor, a superb artist and a good friend. I want to express my sincere sorrow to the entire Latin America for this loss". There were similar statements from Norman Taurog and Paramount vice-president, Henry Herzbrun. Finally, John Nathan, who was in charge of the Paramount branch for Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, said: "Many years of experience in Latin American countries have demonstrated, beyond any doubt, that ther have never been, in the entire History of the light art of the World, an artst that have completely achieved the admiration of million of people like Carlos Gardel". Even today we still paid tributes to Carlos Gardel. It is quite difficult to explain why he is still so admired. But he earned that affection in his lifetime. The prove is that his records are still succesful after almost 90 years that the first one was made available. Let's hope that his films would reappear in better shape than in the horrible accesible prints And that the Hollywood studios never produce a film about him. Saludos desde Peludópolis JORGE FINKIELMAN
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